For more details about the challenge winners, check out this message from the Esri App Challenge Development Team.

Purpose

Do you have an innovative idea for an app that could help health and human services professionals understand the impacts of climate change on the health of their communities, and drive action to meet the population's needs? If your idea includes location data and Esri technology, then enter the Esri Human Health and Climate Change App Challenge.

Background

In June 2013, President Obama announced a comprehensive Climate Action Plan. This blueprint for action includes the Climate Data Initiative, an effort to encourage tech innovators to use data about climate change risks and impacts in compelling ways to help people, businesses, and communities make smarter decisions in the face of climate change. As the White House expands its Climate Data Initiative to include more than 150 health-relevant open data resources, Esri is committed to doing its part.

We're taking action by unleashing the power of GIS for communities to analyze and visualize data, as well as create predictive models, to understand and then reduce the impacts of climate change on health. And now we’re challenging the worldwide GIS community to build game-changing apps that help communities visualize, understand, and reduce climate change health risks.

The Challenge

Esri's Climate Change and Human Health App Challenge is open to everyone - including developers, start-ups, governments, academics, and NGOs to name a few. Get creative for this important initiative by using the growing pool of open data and Esri apps, maps, services, and APIs. Judges will select the best of the best apps to be featured at Esri’s Health and Human Services GIS Conference. Esri will award prizes and share the winning apps on our Collaborative Resource Portal.

Participants are encouraged to create apps that help health and human services professionals understand the impacts of climate change on the health of their communities, and drive action to meet the population’s needs.

Themes to Consider

Impacts of extreme heat and severe weather

Consequences of wildfires and floods

Effect of drought on food insecurity, malnutrition, mental stress

Increases in vector-borne or water-borne diseases

Air pollution and or pollen and respiratory disease

Assessing the risks to vulnerable populations and those with special needs

Tailoring education and/or risk communication to targeted populations

The Prize

Winners will receive:

First Place: $10,000 or software equivalent
Second Place: $5,000 or software equivalent
Third Place: $2,000 or software equivalent